Posts Tagged ‘Star Trek’

This article (link below) about Star Trek and how it has lost some of its original charm (not the right word but I’m trying to get this post up quickly) is spot on. But ultimately, Star Trek is still there for you. And for your children.

The Original Series Trekkies at BayCon 2003 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Photo note: I don’t know any of these people; it’s a usable pic from Wikipedia. I kinda love it, though.)

Still, my inner 12-year-old worries that this unique creation has lost much of its wide-eyed charm. Executed on a shoestring, begun amid major social tumult, “Star Trek” triumphed in large part because it tackled such essential and eternal themes as prejudice, war, learning and love. Shortly before the series began, the associate producer Robert H. Justman pleaded for “shows where the story is the thing and the gimmicks are unnecessary.”

Fair enough. However, as a parent and huge Star Trek fan (I also prefer Trekker to Trekkie, but that’s a subject for another time), I can safely say that the original series is still there for you. And your kids.

My own children are not as into Star Trek as I am, mostly because I am so deeply into Star Trek that I own a TriCorder and went to a friend’s wedding dressed (vaguely) as Mr. Spock. (I took my ears off during the ceremony, out of respect, but I put them back on when I got up to sing a Ramones song. Trust me, it fit.) I spent many tortured minutes debating whether or not I should go as Spock (now known as Spock Prime, because of the new movies) or Mirror Universe Spock. I chose the latter, although my beard wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped. Also, I wear glasses, so it was never going to be perfect. (One last caveat — the wedding invitation did say costumes. It’s not like I just showed at somebody’s wedding wearing pointy ears.)

Clearly, I have deep feelings for Star Trek. This is not a surprise to anyone who knows me reasonably well.

As such, I understand that many fans are disappointed with the direction the new Trek movies have taken. Personally, I like them, because they have managed to keep the essence of the characters mostly intact, and the characters are one of the reasons why I love the original series, or rather The Original Series. Of course the plots are another reason, as was the vision that Gene Roddenberry presented. Hell, it was the whole package. I loved it.

And I still do. I’m sharing it with my children. They get it. Are they going to feel the same way I do? I doubt it. And that’s fine.

Like the author of the New York Times Op-Ed, I didn’t go to the convention this past weekend. Why? I don’t know. One, I forgot. Two, I don’t love crowds. Three… that’s probably it. I could add “I’m cheap” and I imagine the tickets to the Con were not inexpensive.

You know what is, though? Watching The Original Series. Thanks to the wonders of streaming video, you can watch any episode of Star Trek whenever you like. You need a Netflix subscription, or Amazon Prime.

Is that a good way to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek? It sure is. It’s also a good way to celebrate any other day. And that will never change.

Live Long and Prosper.

How the franchise lost its cult status — and why at least one Trekkie is in mourning.

Nice article about Star Trek Beyond (written by my former colleague at Babble, Whit Honea). Discussing whether or not it’s OK to take the kids. Spoiler alert: Whit says it is, with the caveat that your mileage may vary. (That’s usually the case, but I was glad to read that there wasn’t any blood and guts, which is usually what bothers me.)

Then I read the comments. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Generally it’s a good idea to skip the comments. In this case, though, I’m glad I didn’t. Because commenters responded the same way I did, which is to reply with a hearty, “What the hell are you talking about?” Or, to put it another way:

At Humble Bundle, we put the power directly in the hands of consumers. You pay what you want for downloadable content and choose where your money goes. Through this model and the help of the Humble Bundle community, we’ve raised over $75M for charity.So how does it work? We put together bundles of games and books that can be purchased at whatever price you think is fair. Once you’ve chosen a price, you can choose whether you want your money to go to the game developer or book publisher, charity, or Humble Bundle. We also offer the Humble Store, a digital storefront that features individual games at set prices with frequent discounts and a portion of sales going to select charities.

No idea what I’m talking about, orjust want me to cut to the chase? Basically, Humble Bundle gets a bunch of stuff (video games, comics, books) bundles them together and allows people (you) to pay whatever they want for it. The money goes to charity, and you get to decide what percentage of your money goes where. It’s very easy and you get to feel good about consuming mass quantities of digital stuffs because it’s for charity. Also you get a lot for your money.

In this case, we’re talking about $351 worth of digital comics for… well, the most anyone has paid as of this writing is $51.06. The average is $14.26. All Star Trek comics. I’ve read some of them and “Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive” is worth $14.26 all by itself. (Seriously. It’s really fun. Much better than it has any right to be.) The same could be said for “Star Trek: Year Four“, which is a comic book version of the fourth year of the Enterprise’s five-year mission. (Remember? it was a five-year mission that was canceled by the Gods of Television.) A lot of the others are good too, and those are just the comics I’ve read. You get a LOT MORE.

Check it out. Share with your kids. It’s easy because the comics are provided with no DRM, meaning you can copy them to whatever device you choose. If you go above a certain amount you even get a print book.

It’s a good deal, folks. Check it out. Limited time offer; your mileage may vary. DaddyTips takes no responsibility for anything.

This may seem weird because I’m linking to a site that says “The Star Trek Beyond trailer has landed and it’s going to annoy the hell out of fans”. But I think the new Star Trek Beyond trailer is brilliant.

Here’s what the other site says:

The first trailer for Star Trek Beyond, the third in the current series, has landed, and it’s very silly. While fans still crave a more cerebral film a la the Picard/Sisco golden years, Paramount looks to be going further in the other direction – the emphasis in the trailer being on comedy and action.

And here is the trailer.

Something needs to be clarified. This quote is also from the linked article: “It begins by shamelessly cribbing from Guardians of the Galaxy, with the crew enjoying anachronistic music, before rifling through one-liners, lurching spaceships and hand-to-hand combat with aliens.” (emphasis added)

That “anachronistic music” is the Beastie Boys’ song Sabotage (arguably the best song ever), and it was featured in the first JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie.

Remember that? I know it was 2009, but that wasn’t THAT long ago. More importantly, it’s not a random choice of song. It’s a callback to the first of the new Star Trek movies, when a young lad named James Tiberius Kirk steals his stepfather’s car and cranks up Sabotage.

Does the trailer look a little goofy? Maybe. But it’s a first trailer. There’s clearly going to be more Scotty, which I’m in favor of, because Simon Pegg is awesome. He also co-wrote the screenplay, so I don’t mind that he’s giving himself more screen time.

But awful? Really? I think it looks like fun. The other two reboots weren’t perfect but what they did get right is the characters. As long as that continues, we’ll be fine.

Also — and this is very important — IT’S THE FIRST TRAILER. We have no idea what the actual film is going to be like. And that’s great. I’m tired of trailers telling me every friggin’ thing that’s going to be in the movie before I see it. For example, Idris Elba is in the cast. Love Idris Elba. No idea who he’s playing. That’s cool with me.

Spock is logical. McCoy is cranky. Kirk is something of a maverick who will sleep with anything. That’s what matters. After that, give it a chance, people. Don’t judge a film by it’s trailer. Be happy that there’s more Star Trek to consume. I know I am.

Apparently he’s going to do some voice acting on The Clangers, which is a show we’ve never heard of but it seems that it used to exist and is being revived. (Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, is also on it.) In addition to this, a quick news search tells us that The Shat will be on an upcoming NBC show with Henry Winkler (Ayyyy!), AND he’s driving cross-country on some sort of odd vehicle. You can read about all of that, as well as the fact that there’s apparently a fake Shatner on Snapchat, via the related links below. All this is in addition to the many other projects Mr. Shatner always has going on.

We hope to have half as much energy as ol’ Bill has at his age. Heck, I’d settle for having that much energy NOW.

Here is a fascinating article in The New York Times about a new language, Light Warlpiri, which is spoken by a relatively small group of Australian Aboriginal people. Everyone who speaks it is younger than 35 years old. And it began with baby-talk.

There are many dying languages in the world. But at least one has recently been born, created by children living in a remote village in northern Australia.Carmel O’Shannessy, a linguist at the University of Michigan, has been studying the young people’s speech for more than a decade and has concluded that they speak neither a dialect nor the mixture of languages called a creole, but a new language with unique grammatical rules.

When a parent tells you to write stuff down, they could be talking about good old to-do lists. I do that constantly; I’m concerned that I’ll forget to do whatever it is I’m writing down, and also because I actually am likely to forget whatever it is unless I write it down. (Follow that?) In this case, I’m not speaking of to-do lists. I’m talking about about stuff you do with your kids. You should write it down because you will forget.

You may think that you’ll remember. After all, you’re not that old, right? Read more »